7 i:^ a o^ i:a. ..i^ i:a. ^:2^ OF THE PRINCETON, N. J. SAMUEL AQNEW, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. q4^o ^ |j Case, Division i j >v/.^^ s,,,„. I (^ Booh, ,, ) \^> ■ No. 5 -*» 6Q 4 •' SERMONS ON THE iMETHOD OF SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. BY THE REV. DONALD ERASER, A. M. WINISTBR OF THK PARISH OF KIRKHILL, INVERNESS-SHIRE. EDINBURGH; WILLIAM WHYTE & CO. 13. GEORGE STREET, BOOKSELLERS TO HER MAJESTY } W. COLLINS, M. OGLE, GLASGOW ; J. DEWAR, PERTH ; A. ALLARDYCK, DUNDEE ; P. GRAY, ABERDEEN ; K. DOUGLAS, INVERNESS ; R. DOUGLAS, TAIN ; LONGMAN & CO., LONDON. MDCCCXXXIV. PREFACE. If it should be considered of any import- ance to enquire, why it was deemed proper, in an age when the press is teeming with sermons from every hand, to offer such a vo- lume as the present to the public, the author has only to reply, that these Sermons having been preached in his ordinary course for the elucidation of the important subject which they embrace, the propriety of publishing them was suggested to him from a quarter wherein he could have apprehended no other motive to have operated than the persuasion of their being calculated to be useful ; and that, in deference to the opinion thus expressed. IV PREFACE. more than to any judgment of his own of their value, he, with some reluctance, and at the risk of being thought obtrusive, brought his mind to decide on their publication. He was confirmed in this decision by the conviction, that the Economy of Human Re- demption cannot be exhibited in its relations and with due effect by sermons, unless in the connected and continuous form of a Treatise, seldom adopted, in which the sermons now presented appear. He will not presume to suppose that he has been able to supply any thing like a suitable or adequate representa- tion of so momentous and comprehensive a subject, particularly in the narrow compass to which he has judged it right to confine him- self ; but he does venture to hope, that the following attempt, however imperfect, to pre- sent the leading truths of the Gospel to the intelligent classes of the community in a con- nected, and popular, and scriptural form, may PREFACE. V not be unprofitable to some. And if the Lord shall be pleased to grant a measure of usefulness, which it is earnestly besought he may of his own goodness do, the author holds that he would not be warranted, however na- tural it might be, to feel much concern as to what may otherwise befall this his first at- tempt before the public. |f'^pEia AiCiw; ^%, ( vii CONTENTS. SERMON I. ON man's bondage in an unconverted state, JoH.v viii. 36. — If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. SERMON II. ON THE DELIVERANCE WHEREWITH CHRIST ' MAKETH FREE ATONEMENT CONSIDERED, 22 John viii. 36 If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. SERMON III. ON THE DELIVERANCE WHEREWITH CHRIST MAKETH FREE EFFICIENCY OP CHRIST RISEN CONSIDERED. ...... 40 John viii. 36 If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Vlll CONTENTS. SERMON IV. ON THE MODE OP SECURING A PERSONAL INTE- REST IN THE DELIVERANCE, , . 58 John viii. 36. — If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ve shall be free indeed. SERMON V. ON THE COURSE OP LIPE AVHICH THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE, ... 79 Matthew vii. 21 — Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. SERMONS, &c. SERMON I. ON man's bondage in an unconverted state. JoH^' viii. 36 If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. The mention of freedom, or a deliverance, for mankind, implies that they are in bondage of some sort ; and, such is the pride of human na- ture, prompting man to deny what would degrade him, that if he thought he could maintain his ground, he would instantly repel the charge of being enslaved, and would reject the offer of a deliverer with scorn. If we find the Gospel charge of man's being sinful and lost, differently entertained and quietly borne in a land of Chris- tians, it is because they have become early fami- A ON MAN S BONDAGE liar with it ; they have heard it always said that men were sinners ; the charge equally appHes to all, and therefore is not thought or felt to be a slur on any one. By a certain tact of avoiding what gives pain, a habit is formed in the mind of averting the point of conviction from itself, and this it does by resolving every charge into some- thing general belonging to all, which just ope- rates as if it concerned none. In preaching the Gospel, which asserts directly the guilty and enslaved condition of mankind, and which also declares the necessity of a Divine deliverer, — a truth implying that men are sinful and helpless to a degree that makes it utterly impossible for them to save themselves, and that if relief comes they must be beholden to a Saviour for it ; we present the view which God gives, and the estimate which Godhas formed, of the condition of our race. Men might have pride enough even to impugn what God says ; but sinfulness is too palpable an attribute of human nature, and con- science is yet too strong, to allow of their deny- ing the charge altogether. They protect them- IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. J selves, therefore, from the pain it occasions by such evasions as we have noticed ; by which ad- mitted truth is deprived of its legitimate influence on the mind. The Gospel is made ineffectual, not by denial of its truths, but by a compromise man has made Avith his conscience, that they shall not be applied personally. These are melancholy circumstances for a rational being to be placed in ; — like a child, who thinks he avoids an impend- ing danger, by shutting his eyes upon it. Our course in ministering the Gospel, however, is plain. We must assert and reassert what God declares, both as to the danger and the mode of recovery of sinners, whether they mil hear or for- bear — apply or evade; being assured that the time will speedily arrive when God shall vindi- cate and establish his truth against all denial and evasion. At the same time, our duty is to pray that men may be brought personally to apply the truth that they may be saved. Intending to offer somewhat of an enlarged view of the great deliverance wherewith Christ raaketh free, we begin with this implied and fun- 4 ON man's bondage daniental truth, — That all natural or unconvert- ed men are in bondage. I. The nature of this bondage falls to be con- sidered. Need we say that it is not an excusable bond- age, and the object of mere commiseration like the physical slavery of the body, which may be imposed and continued by injustice and compul- sion ; but moral, in the disposition of the mind, which is inclined to evil, and therefore culpable and degrading, as would be that of slaves who should love their chains and seek not to be free ? It consists in the soul's subjection to a ruling sin- ful disposition, opposed to God and his law, and in its subjection too to the effects inseparable from such a state of the soul, — to condemnation from the divine law, — to increasing pollution of mind, — and to liability to Satan''s temptations. We shall endeavour to trace it in these parti- culars. Thejirst of these, the condemning power, it derives from the divine law, which attached, by IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. O an unalterable eternal decree, penalty to trans- gression, saying, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die. " The day thou eatest," saith God to Adam, " thou shalt surely die;"" not then fixing the penalty, but declaring the great truth, founded in the nature of God and his government, that sin and penalty should be inseparable. This is the curse spoken of. Gal. iii. 20, '' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, written in the book of the law to do them." This is the condemnation already upon them that believe not. The power of condemnation, then, sin has from the law ; " The strength of sin'" (in this respect) " is the law *.'"' This sentence of law rests upon our condition, and materially affects our pre- sent state as well as our future destinies, though we may not consciously have the slightest ap- prehension of it. The soul, as an accursed terri- tory, is left to its own corruption and barrenness, unvisited by the light or dews of heaven. It is the soil on which the avenger treads in all its length and breadth, as that legally assigned him. • 1 Cor. XV. 56. 6 ON 3IANS BONDAGE See in this the facility which condemnation gives to the polluting power of sin and to the intrusions of Satan, and the impossibility there is that the condemned should be free. The designation given to the curse of the law is death ; but the amount of this infliction, when it takes full effect at last, has never yet been as- certained in the experience of any of our fallen race on earth : none have returned to tell what death is when completed, — to relate the feelings of a soul fully exposed to the frowns of offended justice, or to depict the horrors of evil disposition unmitigated, and of despair interminable. We know only what the word of God says of the second death, and of the place where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. This tremendous impending evil seems to have as its forerunner or harbinger in the soul on earth, an undefinable awe, the parent of superstition, which, far from having any beneficial effect, powerfully operates to drive men to the intoxications of sin- ful pleasure, as an opiate to soothe the wounded spirit, and makes them dread approaching God. IN AN UNCONVERTED STATK. 7 "■Zd, The polluting power of Sin. — No one is entirely ignorant of the injurious influence of the appetites and passions — " of the lusts that war against the soul,"' of " the law of the members warring against the law of the mind.'' Many, however, are regardless of the working in the hid- den man of the heart of those spiritual passions, "• the lusts of the mind,'' which are equally known to God, and marked by him as those which ex- press themselves in overt acts, and which, as at- taching to the spirit, or higher and more endur- ing part of man, are more evil and odious to God. Still more are unable to discover any thing like unity of character, and concurrence of operation, in these ever changing passions, for morally pol- luting human nature and opposing God : they ap- pear like accidental and contradictory movements vidthout any fixed direction ; nay, it may seem that the check which one of these forces opposes to another is salutary ; and we may well allow that much of what passes for morals in the world, is nothing more than the restraining of one evil passion by the counter operation of another equal- ON MAN S BONDAGE \y offensive in the sight of God. How common is it to have sordid love of gain as alone the cause of temperance ; vanity the only source of religious and moral acting; and pride producing self-denial in one quarter, that it may have larger scope in another ; and men, supposing that by playing them off thus one against the other, and by op- posing them all by considerations of reason and self-interest, they may be made harmless, and will be finally subdued. But to understand this matter aright, we must go deeper into human nature, and inquire what that great principle in the mind is, from which these movements spring, and to which they mi- nister. It is the love of gratifying self. This is the great master-passion, the great leading dispo- sition of fallen man. The passions or propensi- ties may be various in their kind, in their move- ments, and in the measure of their exercise : but they have this in common, that they all, and in all their movements, are employed to gratify self; and this taste or love for self-gratifying becomes, by a law of our nature, stronger by every indul- IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. 9 gence,* Now, if it shall be found, that this lead- ing disposition of human nature is itself the very essence of sin, it must be allowed that what mi- nisters to it and increases it, pollutes human nature. In advancing such a position as that the dis- position of gratifying self, as found in fallen hu- man nature, is the very essence of sin, we may ex- pect to have it questioned in some such manner as this : — What ! is it possible that any living being should not have the desire of gratifying himself, or, what is tantamount, should not have the desire of happiness, or, if such a thing were * Believing as we do, that all that are called passions or pro- pensities are but an excess or misdirection of some original property of human nature, and that there are no new pro- perties or faculties, as to their essence, introduced by the al- tered circumstances of man ; believing also that each of these original propensities has a peculiar object or class of objects to which it seeks, by a native impulse in itself, and in which it finds enjoyment ; we would not be held to mean, that the selfish principle either begets the passion or its imj)ulse, both being native and original, but that it excites and gives direction to its movements, so as to subserve its purpose, in the same manner as any strong passion employs the other powers of the soul, each in its own way, to do it ser- vice ; just as the cupidity of the thief employs the noblest power, the understanding, to devise and regulate schemes for its wicked purposes. 10 ON man's bondage possible, would existence be desirable on those terms ? The objection is plausible, and we admit readily, that the desire of happiness is an essential attribute of rational existence. But we do not ad- mit that it ought to have the primary place ; that high place belongs to another disposition, and the desire of happiness has, or ought to have, a place secondary and subservient to that disposition. In the original creation of man, God formed him to be in relation with himself, and accommo- dated him in his soul to that universal law which was the bond of this connexion between Himself and his creatures. The great enactment of that law was, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart."" This fvmdamental clause in the divine law enjoined, as the leading disposition in the creature, supreme love to God. God wrote this disposition on the human heart ; it was the primary one, the ground of all moral movement, and in acting from this great motive, God pro- vided that there should be a gratification of incal- culable amount and duration to the creature. He thus put creature gratification in the second place ; IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. 11 but by this he did not lower it in character, or les- sen it in degree. On the contrary, by putting the love of God first, he opened up, in the divine nature, to which this disposition attracted man, an infinite field of excellence for observation and enlargement of feeling, which should never cease to produce the purest and most intense happiness. Man, in the fall, by violating the law of God, broke his relation with God ; lost the primary disposition of loving God imprinted at his first creation ; ceased to retain the knowledge of God : and then his secondary property, the desire of happiness, sought created objects with which he was surrounded, with them to gratify himself: He took the world instead of God as his object, and sent out all his propensities to draw gratifica- tion from this new object ; need we say, how mean in the comparison ! The sin, then, iji his present state of heart, is not that he desires to be happy viewed in the ab- stract, but that he seeks for his own gratification the primary place, or that self-love occupies the place of the love of God, and that he has chosen 12 ON man's bondage the world as his delight rather than God. " Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord ; for my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." * This state of the heart is essen- tially polluted and wicked. The exercise of the passions ministering to it, and giving it indulgence, strengthens it, and thereby increases the pollu- tion of our natures. And if we consider moral purity to consist in conformity to the divine law, which is the true standard of purity, then we must see that the selfish or carnal mind which is enmity to God, is not subject to it, neither indeed can be. Thus, that law has as its first and great enact- ment " Love the Lord thy God,'' which is essen- tially opposed to the selfish principle. The one cannot be ascendant without the dethronement of the other ; it is the contrariety in their very es- sence, of these two antagonist principles, that causes enmity to arise in the selfish or carnal • Jer. ii. 12, 13. IN AN UNCONVERTBD STATE. 13 mind whenever the demand of the law for the as- cendency of its great principle stands fully out. The carnal man would willingly do many things of what the law requires, but to put God before himself is too much. Sd, Satanic temptation. — The legal captivity to Satan by the curse of the law has already been adverted to. He assaulted our first parents with temptation when in innocency, but it seems to have been from without^ by verbal persuasion, and by exhibition to the senses, addressed to desires and principles, and tastes that were natural and legitimate. The sanctuary of the mind does not appear to have been permitted to be invaded. Christ being sinless could say, " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in mer But soon as they became accursed or subjects of penalty, became of the same class, and occupied one common ground with Satan as fallen and apostate, there seemed to be a nearer fellowship established, a fuller access to the mind given, as well as sympathies formed which facilitated the temptation to sin which he employed against them. 14 ON man's bondage and which, as a powerful and designing spirit, he was able to manage successfully and covertly. Of Judas it is said that " Satan entered into him."" The permission seems to have been given him in his character of avenger, thus to operate against the children of disobedience, still under limita- tion, saving certain points necessary to their mo- ral freedom and natural existence, and to the ac- complishment of certain designs of heaven. This restriction is intimated in the narrative of the Book of Job regarding Satan. See chap. i. ver. 7-12; and chap. ii. ver. 1-7. The Scripture is clear as to the existence, power, extensiveness, and polluting efficacy of this agency. " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world *.'"* Satan is called " the spirit that ruleth in the children of dis- obedience."" " Ye,'' saith Christ, " are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye do.'^ The great object of satanic malignity is to re- • Eph. vi. 12. IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. 15 tain the creature in sin, and, when under a re- medial system, to prevent the souFs coming un- der the operation of this system so as to be re- covered to God. Satan at present requires no direct recognition of himself; he allows the self we have spoken of to rule and be obeyed, because that is enough to secure the reign of sin. He will allow men to do many good things, if so be that they exalt themselves on that ground. He will become the patron of religious systems, if so be that in spirit and bearing they are adverse to God's way of salvation. He acts by system not to prompt to all sins, and at all times in utter recklessness. The grand point with him is to prevent man's becoming acqviainted with the gos- pel way of escape. He aims to effect this ob- ject ; 1^^, by endeavouring to conceal from men their real condition and danger, and persuading them that they are sufficiently good and safe as they are ; and, O ! how many myriads of blinded self-complacent creatures does he retain captives by this delusion ; men who say, " Peace, peace, when there is no peace^'' and who go down to \6 ON MAN*S BONDAGE death with the " lie "' which he palmed upon them, " in their right hands."' ^d, He attempts direct- ly to obscure the gospel. " If our gospel be hid, it is from them that are lost ; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not *."" He persuades them that the gospel is mysterious, and to their poor benighted and deceived minds it must appear strange ; and he would have them believe that all that is essential in religion must be plain to every one, cruelly concealing from them that what makes it mysteri- ous, is their ignorance of the first principles of divine government and human responsibility, and the complication of evil, and the terribleness of the condemnation under which they lie. It is a remedy commensurate to an evil which they have never felt or imagined ; and so it is incon- ceivable. This moral binding of the mind by deceptions, those chains of darkness, constitute the strength of Satan's enslaving power over the children of disobedience. • 2 Cor. iv. 4. IN AN UNCONVERTED STATE. 17 II. Proo/^ corroborative of the Scripture repre- sentation of this bondage, may be drawn, 1^^, From Death and its appearances. — The terror which death impresses gives it all the character of a penal infliction ; it seems not an or- dinary process of nature, such as certain animals undergo in passing from one stage of existence to another, the chrysalis state, for instance ; but a violence done to nature, a forcible disruption of its frame, against which nature struggles. A similar inference may be drawn from its univer- sality' " It is appointed unto all men once to die."" However various in qualities and in course of life, all come to this common fate at last. There is a general proscription which this de- stroyer enforces against every living being of the fallen family of Adam, as well as against all the living creatures which connect with man on earth. " The earth is accursed for thy sake,"" saith God to Adam. Does not this furnish daily and hour- ly evidence of the resting of the We may then safely confide in him for the future, as well as for the past, that he will carry us safely through all the remaining evils, and work all our works in us. But will it be said, Why, with such powers on his part, is not the deliverance immediate and complete? Why not at once bring them away from the vicissitudes of earth to the " inheritance of the saints in light." The only answer, and which should be satisfactory to every humble mind, is, that God saw it meet for his own honour, and for the enhancement of the happiness of his people, that they should pass a life of faith here, be- fore entering into their rest, and for this cause, that there should be a wilderness course before they enter into their heavenly Canaan. Here they are not to have their good palpable, but enjoyed in the expectancy of faith. Thus Abraham, " against hope, believed in hope ;" * that is, in the face of discouragements in the natural and providential aspects of things, still hoped through faith for the fulfilment of God's promise, and more generally * Rom. iv. 18. 76 ON THE MODE OF SECURING A PERSONAL the apostle affirms, '* For we are saved by hope : but hope that is seen, is not hope : for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? but if we hope for what we see not, then do we with pa- tience wait for it.""* * To conclude. — If the bondage of the soul is such as has been described ; if the Son of God is the only and the all-sufficient deliverer by whom we can be made free ; if it is proposed to us on the part of God, who hath given us his testimony concerning his Son, that we should believe in his Son, and confide in him as our deliverer, that thereby we might have a personal interest in this glorious liberty ; if it is truths, the very truth at- tested by God, that we are called to believe ; if God himself demands of us to believe, " This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ;" -f if the encourage- ments to it are so strong in the aspects of the gracious character, and official qualifications of the ffreat deliverer; — what determination can we * Rom. viii. 24. f ^ John iii. 23. INTEREST IN THE DELIVERANCE. 77 come to, with safety to the soul, or with any re- gard to our duty to God, but that of immediate- ly betaking ourselves to Christ the Son of God in truest faith and confidence that we may be saved ? Beware of deferring this salutary determina^ tion. Would it be rational for one sentenced to a capital punishment to delay applying to the foun- tain of mercy ? Should one, under a mortal dis- ease, hesitate to employ the means of cure, as if it were a slight ailment removable by the powers of his own constitution ? The purpose of a moment's delay involves a preference of the disease to the remedy, — of the bondage to the liberty ; it is the degraded slave saying, when the proffer is made him of being elevated to a freeman. Away with your freedom ; I prefer my chains. It involves more; even, the rejection of the Son of God as our deliverer, — the most provoking to God of all human offences, and which may bring the Spiri- tual judgment of a dark insensible heart in all time coming. Every moment's delay defrauds God of his just right, even the warm tribute of 78 ON THE MODE OF SECURING DELIVERANCE. the heart's gratitude for his amazing love in hu- man redemption ; for that tribute never begins to flow from the heart of man to his God, until he hath participated of the glorious liberty where- with Christ maketh free. (-79 ) SERMON V. ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. Matthew vii. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father Avhich is in heaven. In the immediately preceding discourse, where- in it was attempted to be shewn, that faith in God's Gospel testimony, involving our accession to God's plan of deliverance by Christ alone, is the only way in which we come to have a personal interest in the freedom wherewith the Son maketh free, or in other words, is the only way by which we enter into the kingdom of heaven ; we may be considered to have maintained what is irreconcilable with our Lord's declaration, in the passage now before us. How, it may be asked, can it be said that sal- vation is of faith that it might be by grace, and 80 ON THE COURSE OP LIFE WHICH THE also that we are justified by faith without the works of the law ? thus giving an exclusiveness to faith as the medium of our acceptance. How can we be justified by faith without the works of the law, if there is an actual demand made that we do the will of the Father in heaven as a requisite to our salvation ? The contrariety of the two statements is only apparent, not real. The doing of the Father's will in the most extensive sense, is the being an- swerable or obedient to all the authoritative ex- pressions of that will which he hath given in his word. In this large amount of demand is in- cluded^i^^ in his Son. Thhjaith, indeed, holds a primary place in the New Testament code. " This,"'* saith Christ, in answer to a formal inter- rogation of the Jews, " is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent." " This,"" saith the Apostle, " is his commandment, that we believe on the name of his Son."" And so es- sential is faith as a part of God's requirement, that it is declared that " without faith it is impos- sible to please God."*' BELIEVERI N CHRIST MU8T PURSUE. 81 Faith, then, is not a thing separate from, or opposite to the will of God, but a part, and a most important part of it, as obligatory on lost sinners. Besides, though faith, viewed simply as an act of the human mind, may be considered as not a moral act or a work of the- law, and, therefore, an appropriate medium for connecting man with a salvation which is purely of grace ; yet this does not prevent that there shall be in the state ()f mind of the person exercising that act, semi- nally^ or in their first elements, that penitential feeling, — that surrender of the soul to God, — that devoting of one's self to the Father's will, which are elsewhere spoken of as requisite in the return- ing sinner. God may properly hold an enacted faith, as that alone which constitutes the tie with Christ, and may, at the same time, as a homage due to himself, and as an adaptation of the sinner to the state into which he enters, demand that men shall recent as weU as believe, " that the wicked man for- sake his way, and unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn to the Lord.'' f{2 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE It may not be our repentance or our go6d dis- positions toward God and his service, that unite us to Christ ; but, at the same time, it may be quite impossible, without such disposition in the state of our minds, in an incipient form at least, to arrive at that exercise of faith which is requi- site, any more than to adapt our mental attitude to the majesty and claims of God, when approach- ing him. Is it conceivable that man can believe God's truth concerning his own guilty and ruined con- dition, and agree to receive the intervention and righteousness of a mediator as the ground of ac- ceptance, without that feeling and acknowledge- ment of guilt, which is the element of repent- ance ? Or can man, in believing, takie refuge in the immeasurable love of a God, who, at the same mo- ment, appears really existent in the severest aspect of unbending justice and purity, without that fal- tering of the rebellious principle — that breaking down of resistance — which constitute the first ele- ments of a surrender ? Or, can man, warmed in BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 83 that shelter of the divine benevolence, to which he hath betaken himself, remain hard and unlov- ing as before ? God, then, receives the sinner who believes in Christ unto his favour, and unto an interest in all the privileges of the covenant of peace ; but at that moment, he has that sinner in the very na- ture of things subdued at his feet ; he has, in the state of his mind, the seeds of that moral accommo- dation to God, which is essential to all who would hold relations with him ; he has in an incipient form that " holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." And if it should please God, by an immediately subsequent act of his providence, to remove the believer from this world, we doubt not that he would so mature, by processes of speedy operation, that moral qualification, the ele- ments of which he had implanted in his nature, as to adapt him to that higher and piu-er state in which his privileges were to be mainly enjoyed. But Christ, in the 'passage before us, addresses men professing faith -who continue in this world 84 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE subsequent to their act of believing ; and his ob- ject is to warn them, that the profession of faith expressed in the words, " Lord, Lord,"*' addressed to him as Messiah, or such other external indica- tions of it as are mentioned in the immediately succeeding context, will avail them nothing, if they continue workers of iniquity, or are not morally conformed to the will of the Father in heaven. We may certainly gather from the circum- stance of our Lord's thinking it necessary to give such a warning, that he perceived in human nature a tendency to substitute a profession of faith, or the display of religious forms and services, for the doing of the Father's will. Believing as we do, that human nature has the same evil liabilities in all ages, we think it necessary to press the sub- ject of the obligation of the believer to do the will of the Father in heaven; and shall en- deavour to fill up and conclude our view of the gospel way of salvation, by pointing out the course which the soul is bound to follow from BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 85 that important point, wherein it closed in believ- ing with the way and will of the Father in sav- ing sinners. The obligation to fulfil the will of the Father in heaven, is founded in the unalterable relations of God and the creature, and is antecedent to, and independent of, all subsequent dispensations of religion. The moralists of this world, there- fore, judge right in supposing that any scheme of religion can have no warrant from God which would set it aside, or teach men that they can dis- obey the moral Governor of the world and be well. But their error is, that they do not see that spe- cialty of the Divine dispensation introduced by the Gospel, which requires, for faith in Jesus Christ, the primary and most important place in our con- formity to the will of the Father. Neither do they perceive, that the possession of the dispo- sition, and the strength necessary to fallen man's answerableness to the moral will of God, is inse- parable from that faith in the Lord Jesus who is said to be '* our life and strength." Their sys- tem is, that the performance of our moral obliga- 86 ON THE COURSK OF LIFE WHICH THE tion by us, is to be introductory to every enjoy- ment of the Divine favour and possession of hea- venly privileges, and they would make the course of a man's life to be a continued performance by htm of moral duty, to be rewarded at the end with Divine favour and blessing ; whereas, by the Gos- pel, God invites and commands sinners, astheytt;T, to come unto him, and to enter into favour and pri- vilege through Jesus Christ by faith in his name ; and then, after this act, and in the position of ad- vantage in which it places them, and with the ge- nerous sentiment of love to God with which it inspires them — and aided by the strength of Christ which it secures to them — he enjoins them to go forward, to the strict performance of all righteous- ness to the end of life : belief thus being the first step of a course of morals — the putting on the liarness for a struggle against evil — the commen- cing, of a work of salvation which they are to " work out with fear and trembling." The difference between the mere moralist and the believer is not so much as to the thing to be done ; — both are agreed in the necessity of mo- BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 87 rals ; — but as to the order in which it is to be ])er- formed, and the motives by which it is to be prompted. The morahst's motives are fear, self- interest, and the consideration of the beauty of virtue: but along with these the believer has strong encouragement and hope, and above all, that love to God, responding to the love of redemption, which is the only basis of true morality the only effectual motive to do the will of God. The will of God is not seen simply in the au- thoritative issuing and sanctioning of a code of moral law, to which man, as the subject of Di- vine government, is to be obedient ; but rather is a gracious, directive, admonitory will, as of a Fa- ther, enjoining sinners to have recourse to a Sa- viour, and thereafter to pursue holiness as their great object ; to make the exertions—to employ the means— to engage in the practices that are pro- motive of this great object, that they may be ulti- mately assimilated in character to God, and ma- tured for that higher state of existence with him- self for which he designs them. They are no doubt, as responsible creatures. 88 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE obligated by that moral code, which is the great rule of righteousness in the universe, heightened rather than lowered in its character, and extended rather than diminished in its spiritual demand. But the aspect of benignity it assumes as the ad- monitory inculcation of a Father — the beneficiali- ty of purpose attaching to it, as part and parcel of a remedial system, and as administered by our Immanuel (" for we are under law to Chrisf ), give it, when joined to its own intrinsic excellency, that strons: recommendation to the heart which may well cause the soul to say with Paul, " I de- light in the law of God after the inward man."" 1 st, The will of God as relates to believers is, that thei/ should be holy. — " This is His will, our sanctification." " He hath chosen us in him be- fore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.'"* * " Be ye holy as I am holy."" The whole character of God, as developed in the economy of redemption, — the whole structure and : • Eph, i. 4. BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 89 provisions of that plan, demonstrate the 'mtent- ness of God to secure the holiness of his people. To be concurrent with this will of our heavenly Father, we too must be intent on the same object. To suppose a Christian believer not aiming at holiness is an utter absurdity : the instant he ceases to have that as his object, he virtually relinquishes the very salvation for which he laid hold of Christ in believing. He is chargeable with this gross in- consistency, that his faith professes to point at one thing, and the aim of his life at another totally different. For, be it ever remembered, that the salvation which is promised, and which the believer professes to seek when he joins the Lord, is not mere immunity from penalty, nor even the fa- vour of Heaven, but also deliverance from the power of sin in his soul, and the possession of a new and well regulated heart, formed on the mo- del of the moral character of God, and answering to the law which is the transcript of that character. This is what we call holiness in man. 2J, The will of the Father is inculcative of that H 90 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE exertion in the form of self-denial and resistance to evil propensity necessary to the development and maturation of the holiness required. " Let a man deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."" " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin/' * If there exist in the believer the sanie tenden- cies and propensities with other men ; if he too hath a " body of sin and death,'"* to pollute and weigh down the incipient principles of life in his soul, he must necessarily, in concurring with the will of God, and in carrying out his object of being holy, oppose these propensities by which the de- velopment of holiness would be prevented. And Jie must do so, not merely by wishes, nor even prayers, but by purpose and the exertion of facul- ty and the guard of vigilance, for though it is true that " itis by the spirit that we mortify the deeds of, the body ;" that the Spirit of God is the effi- cient cause in sanctification ; yet the faculties of man are the lever by which the Spirit works, and the feehng heart of man is the fulcrum or resting- * Matth. xvi. 24. Heb. xii. 4. BKJ.IEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUK. 91 point on which the pressure of that lever must be felt when the strain is on. Nothing can be more unreasonable than to sup- pose, that the processes of the eradication of evil propensity and habit can go on in an indolent and passive state of the soul, or without man's being engaged, as if the exertion were all his own, or without his feeling the strain and fatigue of such exertion on his spirit. In this matter we are " fel- low workers together with God ;'' and we being the weak pai*ty in the arduous work, as well as the subjects of the operation, must feel the exer- tion laborious, and the pain often severe. The negation of self-denial by the indolent or unconscientious, is represented in Scripture as de- structive to faith and the standing it gives: "Hold- ing'" (saith Paul in one of his exhortations to Ti- mothy) " faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck." In another striking passage, in the 2d Epistle of Peter, the fruitfulness or success in holiness of the believer is represented as depend- ing on his " adding, with all diligence, to his faith 92 ON THE COURSE OP LIFE WHICH THE virtue^'' or resolute exertion ; and, on the other hand, the failure of all Christian light and com- fort is represented as following from the want of this addition to faith : " he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.^' The obviousness of all that can be advanced to shew the necessity of self-denial might furnish excuse sufficient for passing it over, were it not for the equally obvious fact, that the failure of that practical exemplification of Christianity, which would become them who have received its truth, may be traced mainly to the absence of this self-denying exertion, and, therefore, that it is necessary to press the subject on men's attention and consciences. How often are men seen to lay the foundation, but indolently neglecting to rear the superstruc- ture ; and, to their shame, they appear as those who have begun to build without counting the cost ; or, to change the metaphor, their field has been sown with good seed, but, through their de- fault in not eradicating the thorns and the briars. BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 93 that seed is choked, and they bring no fruit to maturity. The exertions of self-denial require to be varied and incessant, as well as great, seeing that there are lusts of the mind, as well as the body, to be resisted, and that the ever-varying scenes and cir- cumstances of life furnish new occasions of excite- ment and temptation to one or other of these; at one time, and in one situation, temperance of body requiring to be vigilantly maintained; at another time, and in different circumstances, so- briety of mind. Sd, The will of the Father enjoins certain di- rect means for the promotion of holiness, which we are bound to employ. Many might be mentioned : we shall select one as being most essential and comprehensive, and also as conveying more the idea of a course of exertion toward the great end of sanctification^ — we mean the stiidy of the Scriptures of truth. The prayer of the Lord for his disciples was, " Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is 94 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE truth."" His address to themselves was, "Ye are clean through the word which I have spokep -to you." The instrument 6f human sanctification, then, is the word of God ; but to make that instrument effectual it must be properly wielded. Here, as in the preceding case, of resisting evil propensi- ties, the Spirit of God may be, yea is, the effi- cient cause ; but the studious consideration of the truth on our part is demanded, in order to the operation of that cause, and the production of the effect. Particularly there must be an attentive con- sideration given toward ascertaining the testimony and authority by which the word is supported, and the specific method by which God proposes to save sinners ; otherwise there can be no faith — no entrance to divine favour — no profit — no holi- ness. Ignorance of the peculiar scheme of the Gospel, as found with many readers of the Bible, is fatal to the soul. Again, the study of Scripture has for its object the discoverv of the character of God, with whom BELIEVER IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 95 we have to do, in all he has revealed of himself; for until the light of that discovery shines in, we never come to feel the transforming power of the truth, in assimilating us to the Divine character ; we never are changed to the same image " as by the Spirit of the Lord." A slight perusal or a general knowledge of the word, will not enable us to comprehend the di- vinely attested scheme of deliverance with that fulness and accuracy which would give confidence to the mind to rest thereon. Nor can we collect the many scattered rays of light on the divine character which Scripture furnishes into one focus, so that ^ve could have presented to us a well defined image of the God with whom we have to do, without processes of Scripture investigation very different from those ordinarily employed. A rigid exami- nation into the meaning of Scripture language, a close comparison of different parts bearing on the same subject, a patient investigation of difficulties, will be needed to give full effect to this divinely appointed instrument; or, to use Scripture Ian- 96 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE guage, " We must seek for knowledge as silver, and search for her as hid treasures ; then shall we understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." All this is necessary for the attainment of intelligent faith, and for the per- ception of our relations with God. In order that true principle may exist within us, and for the prompting and regulation of suitable practical conduct to follow thereon, we must apply the Scriptures more extensively and faithfully than the generality of its readers ; we must ply the understanding with its reasonings, probe the con- science with its awe-striking authority, and point- ed denunciation, rouse our dormant hearts by its glowing incentives, and must spread out before our restless activities, the well delineated chart of its moral rules and restrictions. Although there were no express injunctions of God requiring us to search the Scriptures — to compare spiritual things with spiritual — " to wait at Wisdom's gates, and to watch at the posts of her doors ;'"* yet the very structure of the human )7iind, and the form of the scripture revelation, BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 97 would distinctly show that studious consideration is absolutely necessary to a beneficial result. And why is it that there is so little effect from the dif- fusion of the scriptures, and the ministry of the truth Pit is, because though we have many hearers and readers, we have few students of the Bible who consider closely and take to heart its truths. 4th, The will of the Father ^demands good ivorks, which are the Jimt of holiness- He re- quires that " they who believe should be careful to maintain good works ;" or, as the apostle Peter has it in a passage already quoted, that they " diligently add to their faith,'' not only virtue and knowledge, but " temperance, patience, god- liness, brotherly kindness, and charity."" The prophet Micah, when instructed of God, under a former dispensation, to address a dege- nerate people, who, in their fear of judgment, seemed to agitate the question, " Wherewith shall we come before the Lord, and bow ourselves before the most High God ? shall we come ^vith thousands of rams," &c., says, " What doth God I 98 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ?" The overt acts of christian morality are the fruits resulting from the inward processes of sanc- tification,and have much the same relation to them that the fruits of a good tree have to its growth. The intrinsic value is not calculated in the one case or the other without the fruit, when circum- stances allow of its production. A sound practi- cal understanding will naturally value the fruits, which in its view are the beneficial results of Christianity, and will not be satisfied without them ; whereas minds of an imaginative cast, like florists who confine their attention to the blossoms, will so overrate the speculative and emotional parts of religion, as to undervalue the fruits. They are so engrossed with the interior, as to have no time nor energy for external good deeds. God, by laying a powerful emphasis on the overt acty whether of sin on the one hand, or of righteousness on the other, decides the question of its vast importance. Of sin's final completion in its outward fruit he thus speaks : '' When lust BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 99 hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is Jinished, bringeth forth death.'''' * In the matter of righteousness, pleasing as are the indications of right sentiments and right spirit, God does not allow us to rest upon them, but em- phatically points to the fruit. " By their fruits ye shall know them ; every good tree bringeth forth good fruit," — thus determining the necessity of the outward deed and act, as the only unequi- vocal test of character. It is not necessary to the general object and argument of this discourse, nor would it be practi- cable, that we should lay down in detail the whole acts or duties which are obligatory on the Chris- tian believer. But a few general observations on the character of his obedience may be proper. The good deeds of a believer in the Gospel are not a few splendid and isolated acts of virtue, made to shine forth in high relief on the visible exterior presented to the world, like fair but bor- rowed fruits attached to a barren tree. They run rather into classes, and continued courses of * James i. 1 5. 100 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE action, agreeing with and resulting from the lead- ing principles of the spiritual system with which he is connected. Thus, for instance, if in believ- ing he hath obtained salvation by the generous love and amazing sacrifices of his Redeemer, and feels the attachment and obligation arising there- from, he will not only not be seen doing himself, oi* giving countenance to the doing in others, what would displease or disparage this Redeemer and injure his cause ; but he will give his hearty approbation and outward concurrence to every measure by which Chrisfs cause may be advan- ced, and the object which brought him to the world promoted. A professed Christian, taking no part, giving no aid, furnishing no contribution to communicate the saving knowledge of Christ to lost men, or nowise engaged in that class of efforts coming under the name of religious bene- volence, would be a perfect anomaly. Again, the actings of a believer, in the details of justice toward God and men — in the maintain- ing unswerving integrity in public and private life — in the practice of all relative and social BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 101 duties, are regulated by the authority and the light of the divine law, which he hath studied, by the inculcations of his heavenly Father's will, re- commended to his heart by all a parent's love. His morality is not a conformity to the maxims and manners of the world. He is in no degree li- mited by these, he disclaims the empire of fashion; he cannot, he dare not, in accommodation to the changing modes and ideas of men, set aside in the slightest degree, rules which are founded in the unchangeable nature of God, and fixed by his irreversible decrees. Neither will he take his rule implicitly from men, who may be esteemed wise and good, as if picking up by oracular notices from them, or by servile imitations, the rule of his actions. The word of God, which '' dwellsin him richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," is the only rule to which he can feel himself, on these points, warranted to conform. And he will reject, if not so readily, yet as certainly, the maxims, and the spirit, and the practice of them who are reputed good, as he does those of the world, if he can 102 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE clearly see that they are not in accordance with " the law and the testimony''' of his God. Further, the deeds of the Christian behever are performed in the presence and in the light of the Divine Character, which he has had developed to him by the word. The beholding of this pure and benignant character, we have shewn, has an assimilating effect; and how will not this operate on the spirit and character of the believer's act- ing; ? His most energetic efforts will be chastened by the awe of a Holy Father's presence. He will " walk humbly with his God." Subdued in his spirit by the wisdom and the purity that over- shadow him, he will fear, lest, by any rash obtru- siveness or self-seeking, he may go before and offend his God. Animated again unto warmth, by observing the vast and productive benevolence which hath filled the universe with bliss, and which, too, hath benignly visited his own soul, his zeal will be kindled into corresponding acti- vity : — and from this compound state of the men- tal feelings, what can be expected but a diligent. BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 103 yet humble, and unostentatious prosecution of ail good ? — a delight in being wisely and considerate- ly, yet aboundingly, merciful, like the Father in heaven — an aim, like him, to fill up the sphere he occupies with benefits to the family of man. One great distinction of Christianity is,' that its morals are taught by example as well as precept, — " Christ hath given us an example that we should follow his steps." The record of this example is before us, who profess to be disciples, for our imi- tation. And, O how beautiful would be a walk like Christ's, — so full of good fruits, — so pure, — so humble, — so zealous, — so patient, — so peace- ful ! With what clearness does his example pre- sent our duty ! how amply hath it furnished us with words and actions, and a spirit suited to the service of a holy God. We cannot properly come to the conclusion of this subject, without a few words to the two classes whom we had more or less in view throughout the discussion. The class whom we have designated the Mo- ralists must see, that, however much we may have 104 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE maintained the exclusiveness of Faith as the me- dium of our connection with the salvation of Christ ; we have also maintained that same faith to be the first of a series of dependent acts obe- diential to the will of God, and having in it a mighty force, and an infinite importance, as intro- ductory to, and promotive of, a pure and an ex- tended morality. The other class, whom we may call the Re- ligionists of profession and display, may see that tlieir avowed belief, which is productive only of profession and religious form, devoid of devoted- ness to the will of the Father, is justly repudiated, and will avail them nothing in the day when every pretension is brought to judgment. The one and the other of these classes ought seriously to consider not only the danger in which they personally stand as holding fatal error, but the additional judgment awaiting them on ac- count of the evil which the communication of their respective sentiments and spirit does to all around them, for there is no religious sentiment or ex- emplification, be its author ever so humble, but BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 105 tells in some way on society ; and those to which we now refer have been the sources of injury to the church in every age, since the days of their prototypes the Sadducees and Pharisees of Judea. The moralist, by ignorantly depreciating faith, fosters in himself and others a repugnance to all that is grand, peculiar, and affecting in the gos- pel scheme, saps the foundation of the very mo- rality for which he contends, and by withdrawing, under a cherished dislike, from the communion of the faithful, excludes himself and all who fol- low him, from the influence of that better know- ledge and purer morality in them, which would instruct him in what he professes to desire. The religionist of mere profession, on the other hand, is chargeable with presenting before others a defective view, or mere caricature, of the spiri- tual believer. His character wants what the con- sciences of all men tell them should be there. He is held as a specimen of religious men, full of all hypocritical pretensions, and no solid worth ; and thus many enquirers into religion are deterred from giving any serious consideration to senti- 106 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE ments avowed by a person so inconsistent in con- duct, and are probably driven to choose the so- ciety, and adopt the sentiments of those, who may be less obviously inconsistent, but who, in their ignorance of the gospel grace, are living un- der the reign of spiritual death. We conclude by taking a short glance at some of the encouragements, which operate as a com- pensating power to relieve the load of concern from off the mind, which feels itself engaged to the arduous work of doing the will of the Father in Heaven. " My yoke,"" saith Christ, (referring doubtless to some such sustaining power) *• is easy, and my burden is light.'' A compensating power is not an immunity from the feeling of la- bour ; it does not relieve by taking out the weight from the scale of duty, but by laying a counter- vailing weight of confidence and hope in the op- posite scale of encouragement. It thus brings the mind to an equipoise, far more salutary than in- dolent ease. The resolution of the believer to pursue the BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 107 path of obedience, cannot participate in any de- gree of the confidence with which men prosecute worldly objects, — a confidence founded on their knowledge of the actual amount of the labour to be undergone, and of the adequacy of their own powers and means to the undertaking. His fu- ture course is but imperfectly known to him, and he sees no reason to confide in any powers of his. If he cherishes confidence, it must be not on a personal but a relative basis. His trust is not in what he can do, but in his Saviour, in whom, as the Lord Jehovah, " there is everlasting strength," and who has embarked all his native and official powers in the enterprise of sanctifying and pre- serving his people in the face of all opposition. His trust is, that, though not sufficient for any thing as of himself, yet, " through Christ strength- ening him, he can do all things." No event that can possibly arise is unknown to his Saviour, or unprovided for in the covenant of his peace. There are recorded pledges of the faithfulness of the God of salvation in the word on which faith can lay hold. Paul, speaking of Christ 108 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE to believers, says, " who shall confirm you to the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.''* The same Apostle, pray- ing for them on another occasion, that the God of peace might sanctify them wholly, and preserve them blameless to the coming of Christ, adds, '^ Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do i^."-|- And more specifically still, he declares, "■ God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able to bear, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.'' j: The history of the Church testifies amply to the unfailingness of this faithfulness and power in the past : " Our fathers trusted in God, and they were not put to shame." Not the weakest lamb of the flock has been plucked out of his hand. Many of the most timid of the feebler sex, sus- tained by this mighty power, have been enabled to endure cruel martyrdom with unfaltering but meek resolution. Be it so, that the work of salva- tion is to be wrought out " with fear and tremb- * 1 Cor. i. 8. t 1 Thessalonians, v. 24. X 1 Cor. x. 1 3. BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUE. 109 ling f' is not the soul sustained by knowing that ** God worketh in us both the will and the deed.'' Next to the assurance of adequate aid, is the conviction of value in the object prosecuted to compensate for the toil of securing it. How must the spirit of man be strengthened and stimulated, by feeling that he is in pursuit of what is worthy of his rational and immortal nature,— what ele- vates him from degradation to moral liberty and rank among the blessed — what gives him daily satisfaction in peace and regulated feeling, and in the sweet solace of an approving conscience, and holds out to him in reversion an indescribably glo- rious and everlasting inheritance. For how infi- nitely less worthy, unsatisfactory, and fading a portion do the men of this world toil with arduous and incessant labour ! Shall they thus " labour for the meat that perisheth," and the believer not exert himself for that " which endureth for ever ?" We are aware, that the observation of the Chris- tian course in real life, both in themselves and others, is apt to cause discouragements to many, especially the view of their own imperfection. 110 ON THE COURSE OF LIFE WHICH THE Happy they, who have their light so far advanced as to shew them that, however discouraged, there is no receding nor desisting from the heavenward way ; who, like Gideon, " though faint, are yet pursuing." Is it so, that the progress of sancti- fication is scarcely perceptible ? let not the per- sisting mind be dismayed. Paul was forced to complain, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?'''' God hath seen right to ordain a long and dreary wilderness course to many before they rest in their portion, as in the case of Caleb of old ; and to all he hath appointed a gradual and generally imper- ceptible progress, like the growth in the field to which it is compared in Scripture, where are seen in slow succession the blade and the ear, and at length the ripened corn in the ear. " Be patient, therefore," saith the Apostle James (v. 7.), " be- hold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receives the early and the latter rain."' The appearances of the same work in other men operate to discourage men in various ways. Some BELIEVERS IN CHRIST MUST PURSUK. Ill appear to have attained an eminence in the wavs of God, that it would seem utterly vain to aspire to. Others, again, exhibit so slight an influence of their avowed principles, as to lead us to sup- pose that there is little attainable in this life. But did we look with an enlarged view on the works of God and consider their analogy, we would expect such varieties in his Spiritual Kingdom, and AS ould not despond though we did not rank with the highest, neither sorrow as if we were doomed to the sphere of the lowest ; but would, by dili- gent exertion, seek our own destined place for which God should fit us. In the firmament, " one star difFereth from another in glory,*" but all show forth the glory of God, and are equally the " framing of his fingers," and occupy the places he assigned them. May He not have seen it right to have some burning and shining lights in his church ? while others twinkle with a feeble ray, now lighted, then ob- scured. If, on the earth, which he hath clothed with infinitely varied vegetation, ranging from the loftv trees of the ancient forest, to the scarcely dis- 112 THE LIFE WHICH A BELIEVER MUST PURSUE cernible herb, should it be thought strange, that, among the plants which the Heavenly Father hath planted in His Church, there should be corres- ponding varieties, some partaking of the qualities of the lofty cedar in Lebanon, and others of those of the lowly sensitive plant affected by every touch? He who constituted such a variety in the physi- cal circumstances of men, might be expected to exhibit a similar variety in their moral condition. Let us, then, leaving all that concerns us to His infinitely wise arrangement, hold on our way un- discouraged, working what our hand findeth to do while it is called to-day. " May the God of peace sanctify you fully, and preserve you blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' Amen. FINIS.